Indian food.

Up until last year Harbin had a choice between Chinese food and ….. Chinese food. If you wanted foriegn food you had the choice between KFC and McDonalds. Now, I love to eat Chinese food. The choices on offer are infinite, you have, my favourite; Hotpot, Harbin local dishes, Canton Food, Xin Jiang kebabs and more, more, more!!! But then the powers that be, God bless them athiests, developed Ren He Jie into a new Indian street. If you build it they will come, and they built it and they came.

Now Harbin has an Indian street with real Indians. Seriously, there are 4 or 5 Indian guys paid to stand there and …… well, just stand there.  Inside you can find shops selling all sorts of shit. They have expensive shit, cheap shit, figurines, jewellery boxes, clothes, tapestries, rugs, childrens toys and stun guns. But that is not my point, my point is that they also have Indian food. Yes, Indian street, Indian people, Indian shit and Indian food!!

The Indian Kitchen is nan bread sent from heaven, authentic indian food cooked by authenic indian chefs and served by authentic Chinese waitresses with authentic Indian dots on their foreheads. It’s pricey compared to a 3RMB bowl of Ma La Tang, but oh so worth it. A meal for two will set you back about 150RMB. But when you’re in the mood for something different it’s as refreshing as a flood in a burns ward. The decor is clean and modern, so a good place to escape people spitting on the floor, if you ever feel the need to do so.

The street is Ren He Jie, don’t be fooled by the bastard me too-ers on Guo Ge Li Da Jie, Bombay Kitchen.

Lunchtime’s always a pain in the arse.

One thing you can always be sure of in Harbin,  is a choice of good places to eat lunch at a seriously discounted price. Even if you’re in the larger department stores, like Yuanda and Songlei, a massive lunch will only cost you ten yuan. And ten yuan is expensive compared to some of the glitzy places you can eat for one yuan. As with any place, personally speaking anyway, you tend to eat the same lunch every day for about two or three weeks and then get sick of it! And then you try something else for a few weeks and get sick of that. A bit like marriage really. So at the moment, what I’m in the process of getting sick of,  is a great Korean dish called “Ban Fan”. It’s a veggie dish, which consists of a bowl of rice with some beansprouts, cabbage, carrots, seaweed all served with a bit of chilli sauce in a roasting hot bowl and wait for it….the best bit….a big runny fried egg plonked on top, all for the exorbitant price of 6 RMB. I know, I know, it’s a bit steep.

Then, there’s the noodles. Of course, some places are better than others but generally, you can’t go wrong.  I’m bored now, so I’ll finish this post later. Take it easy.

 

 

An introduction to Haharbin.

Ok, so the first post. Let’s see…. where to start? Right, my aim is to provide a point of reference for foriegners hoping to visit/ move to/ fly over/ avoid Harbin. I want to give you the reasons why and why not, the pros and cons, the good, the bad and the ugly of this seldom talked about backwater in China.

 Why should you listen to me? Well, I’ve lived here for almost 3 years. I have lived with what Harbin has to offer and to live without what Harbin is lacking. This city has got a hold of me. I don’t know why. But for the sake of filling out a few inches I’m going to try to define what Harbin has to offer.

1. Beer, Ha Pi beer is the best beer in China. Ask anyone, anyone who disagrees is wrong.
2. Learn Chinese in Harbin, the dialect is the most standard. How do I know? The taxi drivers told me so.
3. Rough, Harbin is the wild north east. People haven’t really caught on to the whole gentrification thing yet, most bars don’t even have a mirror in the toilets.
4. Food, the place has loads of great restaurants and cheap, so cheap. Take 50RMB with you, eat your fill, stagger out with enough money in your pocket for a bottle of vodka in Blues bar (more on there later!).
5. Sights, Ice lantern festival, temples, blah blah blah.
6. Shopping, markets, department stores, enjoy haggling over a pair of 2RMB socks.
7. Small foreign community. There are about 800 foriegners here, last thing I heard. Locals love nothing more than to welcome you with a loud “HHHHEEEEEELLLLO!”.
8. Emmmm, taxis. A rollercoaster ride.
9. Ehhhhhh, weather, cold in winter, hot in summer. Winter is for hot pot with as many friends as you can find. Summer is for beer gardens with as many friends as can stand up.